Building a rally car. Opinions wanted.

[MountainMike]

Transmission acquired, getting the engine tomorrow night. Pictures (albeit probably cell phone ones) will be coming.

 

[Jim Oaks]

Any plans to paint it, or just beat the hell out of it.

 

[MountainMike]

It's a dark blue/green that looks pretty good in person. Aside from a few rough edges and surface rust the body is in really good shape. I was thinking of giving it a good cleaning and maybe a quick polish even to see if some luster can be brought back into the paint.

After that it's going to get the de rigueur rally decal treatment. Names on the windows with a flag, a sponsor box, my racing number and a race team name. That's pretty much all I have in mind at the moment. Nothing too fancy.

*edit* Maybe some stripes, too

 

[martin]

Don't forget to put a TRS sticker on it, it's good for at least another ten horsepower.

 

[MountainMike]

But of course Martin! And it looks like they're good for 20

 

[Colin]

you have to subtract 10 because its a chevy though

 

[Colin]

only teasing buddy

 

[MountainMike]

I was waiting for you to pipe up Colin!

Here's a little teaser pic, more to come!

 

[Colin]

nice clean motor, cant wait to see more progress

 

[MountainMike]

Gonna tear some crap off it this weekend. Maybe snag some more pictures of the car for you guys too.

 

[Jim Oaks]

Sweet. Keep us posted.

 

[Jim Oaks]

a sponsor box, my racing number and a race team name.

Sponsors? What sanctioning body will you be racing under? Do they have contingency programs?

What will your team name be?

How will you attract your sponsors?

How committed will you be to be successful?

Will you charge sponsors, or just add sponsor decals for contingency?

 

[MountainMike]

For right now the box is going to stay very much empty and just be there for future use and outward appearance at the moment.

Mot rally races up here are either sanctioned by local overseeing bodies or nationwide through CARS (Canadian Association of RallySport). I'm looking into ways to acquire a Canadian Rally license up here but it's not looking very simple. For the time being the car is being built to race in more grassroots circles.

I guess I wasn't using the right wording anyways, I'm thinking the placard box I suppose.

CARS does have a contingency program in effect but it's only for Subarus.

There was a really good article in I believe Maclean's magazine about grassroots rally racing, I'll see if I can find it.

*edit* Found it, popular mechanics! http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/vintage-speed/48-hours-snowy-gritty-grueling-rally-racing#slide-1

 

[Jim Oaks]

What kind of parts go in to cars like this? I know safety stuff like cages and rally computers. But what else? Any suspension upgrades? Do you have to run at night at all and have extra lights?

 

[MountainMike]

I'm reviewing the CARS rulebook to find all that out. The sad reality is with the 2.8 I'm building a car for a class that's going to phased out in 2015. We'll see if any revisions are made for V6's. With the displacement/cylinder caps this thing fits in a really weird place.

If this works out as a prototype and testing bed there may be another car in the future. But this car is eligible for some smaller non-CARS sanctioned rallies. Which without a CARS license is where I would be starting anyways.